Now that Christmas is near, you know I had a fun and funny story for you all.
This story takes place in December of 2007 after the huge success of the Harry Potter series where author J.K. Rowling started to write a different kind of book. It was called The Tales of Beedle the Bard. It was a small book of only 180 pages that was full of fun stories similar to our Mother Goose. In other words, it is a compilation of short stories that a magical parent might tell their child as they are putting them into bed.
Now, My sisters, which I have four, all loved the Harry Potter series and would often give the books to each other for holiday gifts. So, once this small book was released I saw a chance to get them all a very good Christmas gift. I got one for each of them but the focus of this story will be on my eldest sister Jessie.
Jessie, Is the best present wrapper in the whole world! Seriously! She makes my wrapping look like a disaster.
Okay, I admit it, a 3 year old could wrap a present better than me.
Anyways, every time I need something wrapped I head straight to Jessie’s house and beg her to wrap my gifts for me. Deep down she knows that I am terrible at wrapping and she is wonderful at it, so she agrees.
So, there I was about a week from Christmas with my four unwrapped books. I tried to wrap them myself, but the results were… Un-presentable… I really needed Jessie to wrap them, but how do you make a person wrap their own gift without completely spoiling whatever surprise your gift may have brought them? Finally I came up with a plan. If I am going to do this, I am going to do this with style… After all if you are going to make someone do you a silly favor, you might as well get some laughs out of them while they do it.
I went to Jessie’s house with the wrapping paper that I had picked and showed her what I needed wrapped. Now the key here was to not tell her that any of these were for any of the sisters, or else she would piece together where the other three were going. With a little bit of luck and some Christmas fatigue we just might pull this off.
I had her wrap the first three books in bright red paper. But for the last book, her book, I had picked out some pure white paper. When she reached for it I told her “This gift is for someone very special. I know that you have already done me the favor of wrapping these other three, but this one really needs to be perfect. Please, take your time and do it as best as you possibly can.”
She didn’t ask me any questions as she slowly wrapped the book. Taking special care, she made sure that I saw how careful she was being.
She finished and asked for my approval. Her worst work was better than anyone else’s best… It goes without saying that this was absolutely beautiful. “One last thing. Would you mind just writing ‘Merry Christmas’ on the front of this present” I asked as I pulled marker that writes in silver out of my pocket.
She agreed so I continued. “Now, you have to write it very, very carefully! Take your time on each letter and make sure that they are all perfect.” She looked at me oddly before taking the marker.
As soon as she finished writing she looked back at me. “Would you like me to write who this is to?” She asked.
“Oh Yes!” I said. “Write: To Jessie, from Ben.”
She stopped writing and set down the marker. Shaking her head she started to laugh. I also couldn’t help it and busted up laughing. She stopped only to say “You are SO WEIRD!”
Once she was done I took the gift and walked upstairs to put it under her Christmas tree, laughing to myself and thinking: ‘Thanks for having some Christmas spirit and being a good sport Jessie!”
I wanted to give a special thanks to my friend Eric in Tucson Arizona for reminding me of a story that I once forgot. (May a miracle happen and you have a Utah style Christmas with 5 feet of snow)
And of course! I wish all of you a Very Merry Christmas!
As Random As Random Gets 